Jolt Country

Last week I went to dinner twice with a group of people. One of the members of the group is ... let's say three levels above me at work.

At both dinners, this person began telling stories that sounded so fake that I wanted to pull out my phone and check Snopes right there at the table (but I didn't). In fact, both stories were ones I was pretty sure I had heard in e-mail chain letters from years ago. Of course when I got back to the hotel and checked, I found that both stories were complete BS and have long since been disproven. The first story was about Mr. Rogers actually being a Vietnam sniper and having his arms covered in tattoos, and the second was about how he only eats butter because margarine is actually black but dyed yellow, and is only one molecule away from being plastic.

So, possible outcomes were I could (a) go along with the stories, not embarrassing him, (b) go along with the stories and then later tell everyone to check Snopes, (c) pull up Snopes in the middle of dinner and refute his stories right there, or (d), flip the table over and start shooting. I went with B.

What do/would you do when someone you don't know very well and aren't completely comfortable with publicly humiliating starts telling stories that you know are full of crap?

Depends on how much you care about the person's status. Imagine that most people listening to his stories also know that he's full of shit. So everyone keeps quiet and lets him spout.
Also; does he really believe himself? Sounds like he's parroting stuff heard socially.

You're out with coworkers. You nod politely and keep your mouth shut. NOBODY at the table cares about his stories or whether their true, so what do you gain by shooting yourself in the foot politically? Were you worried someone was going to injure themselves attempting to fashion a replacement dashboard out of margarine?

A simple test: Are you comfortable opening your rebuttal with, "hey maggot..."? If not, don't say anything.

The second one started as he was slathering butter onto a roll. "Used to use margarine," he started, "but did you know that margarine is only one molecule away from plastic? It's true, look it up!" That's when we all went "Hmmm," and he said, "yeah, when they make it it's actually black and they have to dye it yellow to make it look like butter. When I read that, I went back to using butter. It's better for you!"

When I looked it up on Snopes, not only did it say that Margarine is NOT one molecule away from butter, it pointed out what a moot point that is. "After all," the article states," water is one molecule away from being ethanol." Good point.

The Mr. Rogers one was more entertaining. I think someone brought up the Big Bird/PBS thing and then someone else mentioned Mr. Rogers and then it was like knowing a rare trivia fact. "You know, Mr. Rogers was a Vietnam sniper. That's why he wore long sleeves all the time. His arms were cov-verrrred with tattoos."

I think what bothered me the most is that I am a pretty big connoisseur of stupid and pointless trivia, so I was already thinking "if this were true, I'd know it." But it's that whole smug, "well, here's something I betcha didn't know" attitude, and of course nobody knows it because it's not true.

But yeah, if that's the litmus test, I pretty much wouldn't call anybody a maggot at a public meal with other co-workers, and I probably shouldn't point out goofy tall tales at the table whether they are presented as fact or not either.

This is why people who get to certain levels of companies become socially awkward zeroes. Nobody particularly wants to call them on their shit when it happens, so they live in an echo chamber. I hope that guy has kids who are part of the skeptic community, to rebel against him. And it DRIVES him CRAZY.

Flack, you did the right thing. However, the Mr Rogers thing is mostly true: it was a flamethrower, not a sniper. I don't know why the LIEberal media always misreports that.

Except for bosses of course, I almost always pull out my smartphone and look up people's bullshit as they spout it. Sometimes I use the information to ask them questions they can't answer.

e) Encourage them to tell more BS stories and then laugh at them while making it look like you're laughing with them. Then ponder for a minute about how evil you are and how much you enjoy it.

Get's me through the day.